Now Google Assistant Understands the Custom Commands for Third-Party Products

Google announced the rollout of Actions on Google Assistant in seven new languages, including Hindi, it has brought another update with more new features. Google is set to make its voice-enabled assistant more flexible as it is letting developers build device-specific commands for it. Earlier, developers were able to create custom commands to an extent using Actions, which essentially are apps that users control with their voice when talking to Google Assistant.

Actions on Google is essentially meant for developers to build integrations for Google’s voice assistant. Third-party developers create conversation-based actions on the Assistant, which means new Actions on Google will result in new Assistant features for users as well. According to a blog post by Google, Assistant Actions will now support “Custom Device Actions.” This new feature enables the Google Assistant to understand particular voice commands.

Subscriptions were one of the original features of Google Assistant when it was only available in Allo. The latest update adds more functionality to this feature. You’ll be able to subscribe to notifications from Actions. For example, you can be notified of a stock price change or news alert as it happens. Esquire and Forbes are a few websites taking advantage of this new ability.

Assistant Actions now support something Google is calling “Custom Device Actions.” These basically allow Assistant devices to understand more specific voice commands. Google uses the example of turning on a connected oven. Before, you might say something simple like “Ok Google, turn on the oven.” Now you can say a more specific command such as “Ok Google, set the oven to convection and preheat to 350-degrees.” It also means you won’t have to use the annoying “Talk to [blank]” command.